Delhi: Police complaints filed after 3 journalists allege attack by mob

The Caravan team was in northeast Delhi to report on communal tension

delhi police rep Representational image | PTI

The Caravan news magazine has claimed two police complaints have been filed after three of its journalists were allegedly attacked by a mob in northeast Delhi on Tuesday. It alleged a woman staffer was sexually harassed in the incident.

Detailing the incident in a statement on its Twitter handle, The Caravan noted the alleged incident happened in the Subhash Mohalla area of north-east Delhi. The Caravan journalists were at Subhash Mohalla to report on communal tension in the area, which started late on August 5, the day the Bhoomi Pujan of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya happened. Then, a group celebrating the Bhoomi Pujan had, reportedly, raised anti-Muslim slogans.

The Caravan noted, "Today afternoon, in the Subhash Mohalla locality in north-east Delhi, a group of men and women assaulted three staffers of @thecaravanindia—@Prabhtalks, @shahidtantray and a third staff member—to stop them from reporting."

The Caravan statement alleged the mob used communal slurs and one perpetrator even identified himself as a BJP member. "The mob physically assaulted the staffers, threatened to kill them, and used communal slurs. One among the mob, dressed in a saffron kurta, claimed he was the 'BJP general secretary'.”

"Upon learning @shahidtantray’s name, the attackers, including the man who said he was from the BJP, beat him and used communal slurs against him. They threatened to kill him," The Caravan statement said.

The Caravan claimed its staffers narrowly escaped. "Local police personnel subsequently managed to take the staffers to the nearby Bhajanpura station. In his complaint, @Prabhtalks wrote that were he not present, 'the mob led by that saffron-clad man would have lynched Shahid for his Muslim identity'."

Then, The Caravan statement referred to the alleged harassment of its woman staffer. "The third staffer of @thecaravanindia, a woman, was sexually harassed and physically assaulted. After the mob began attacking her,  @shahidtantray and  @Prabhtalks, she managed to extricate herself and escape to a neighbouring gully."

The Caravan alleged members of the mob surrounded the woman staffer and took photographs of her without her consent and one man even exposed his genitals to her.

"As the woman staffer ran and attempted to reach the Bhajanpura station, the mob attacked her again. The attackers beat her on her head, arms, hips and chest. The man in the saffron kurta was among them, as were two women," The Caravan statement said.

On Tuesday night, Hartosh Singh Bal, editor of The Caravan, alleged that though the reporters submitted two detailed complaints to police, no FIR had been registered.

Ved Prakash Surya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast), told The Indian Express that people in the area got “annoyed” by the reporters.

“They had gone to report on a story and people in the area got annoyed. Police safely evacuated the three. We got reports they were manhandled but nobody has suffered any major injuries. We will do an inquiry before filing an FIR… We do not have any information regarding why they went there,” Surya told The Indian Express.

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